A blog on politics and education, supporting socialist ideals and equality of opportunity. Against obscene wealth and inequality.

Friday, 10 February 2017

May courting Trump will misfire

As John
Bew wrote, there is a serious "danger of overestimating" the UK`s "importance as
a moderating influence" on Trump (Politics, 3rd February, 2017). It will not be
long before America`s misogynistic and racist president tires of being
criticised by a country which sells arms to the Saudis to use against Yemen,
whose record of helping refugees is limited, which is fast becoming one of the
world`s biggest tax havens, and whose leader incredulously claims that it
"recognises its responsibilities to the world"!

Bew,
however, does rather miss the point when writing that, on the "prospect of a
US-UK trade deal", May had an "easier brief", when visiting the White House.
There is no way that such a deal will not involve the use of secret courts by
America`s biggest companies to overturn other countries` laws that hinder
profits, in the ways both that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP) threatened, and that tobacco firm Philip Morris challenged
plain cigarette packaging in Australia. Ally this with the danger US healthcare
companies pose to an underfunded NHS, and the fuss caused by an over-hasty
invitation for a state visit, and a US trade deal looks increasingly
toxic.

May
might well be renowned for the "care with which she chooses her words", and the
"deep thought" going into her "every next step", but her rush to visit Trump
looks likely to backfire in so many ways.